Rubber is typically reinforced with various embodiments of textile, glass or steel fibers to provide basic strength, shape, stability, and resistance to bruises, fatigue, and heat. These fibers may be twisted into plies and cabled into cords. Rubber tires of various construction as well as various industrial products such as belts, hoses, seals, bumpers, mountings, and diaphragms can be prepared using such cords.
Although cords of various composition (including metals) can be prepared and used to reinforce rubber, textile cords are used in many instances to reduce the weight of the article, for ease of manufacture, and for performance. Unfortunately, textile fiber-to-rubber adhesion tends to be poor and may be degraded during use, causing uneven wear and a shortened life for the article.
Various methods have been utilized in the past to promote adhesion and to reduce such degradation. One such method is the application of various Resorcinol-Formaldehyde-Latex (RFL) coatings to the cord surface. Treating the cord in preparation for RFL dipping treatment, and the RFL treatment itself, involve a complicated sequence of time consuming and consequently expensive steps.
It continuously remains desirable to improve adhesion of a textile cord to rubber and to reduce the number of process steps required and the cost of providing such adhesion.